NMATA Collaborates with Meow Wolf – May 2016

NMATA is opening doors and inviting you in!!A great big thank you to all of you who have signed up to lead summer camps and workshops at Meow Wolf this summer. The response was so strong and encouraging we are buzzing here! Big kudos to Stephanie Kitts, our student Board member for leading and coordinating all this with Meow Wolf. If you are not familiar with this opportunity, please ask for more details as there is a great potential for our members to create satisfying community offerings and make some money for themselves. For a listing of the offerings, please visit our website under the Events and Workshop Tab. The summer camps are listed there, with the summer workshops to follow soon.

I encourage you all to come out on one of the next three Monday evenings from 6pm-7:30pm to support intern, Christina Villarreal’s offering. $10. It is a nice way to connect with each other and see what is happening. Also consider Qigong; Wednesday evenings 6pm-7pm for the month of May; $10; offered by Autumn Kern. Drop ins are warmly welcomed at each of these offerings.
And there are many more offerings to consider and opportunities to lead if you are inspired to do so!!! Check it all out on NMATA website.

Saturday, May 14, we will be completing the Flower to Seed to Flower Project started last year at the AHA Festival. From 6pm-7:30pm we will have a short workshop to create garden stakes and then we will move outside to have our planting ceremony for all the wishes. This amazing community project gathered origami flowers with wishes written, made these into seed-paper last month and we are planting these wishes at Meow Wolf on a warm spring evening! Beth Lykins has been filming this incredible evolution and is making a short film for the AATA film fest next year. Come out a be a part of this celebration. There is no cost for this last part of the project and your participation supports the success of the project and the film. Let’s have a big presence at Meow Wolf that invites even more community awareness of NMATA!!!

Next, I encourage all NMATA members to send us your profile and picture so that we can post you on the site under the Resources Tab. We want to have a complete listing for client’s searching, professionals checking NM out (happening more and more with AATA coming next year) and those searching for supervisors. If you have let your membership lapse we want you back! We are working hard to have a lot to offer you and also to prepare for integration into AATA conference next year. Let us highlight all the talent in the State. Let us list you on the NMATA site! Email me directly and we will get your information available for all. Our Paypal button on the site is working correctly again and ready for renewal or new members.

NMATA will be represented at this year’s NMCA (New Mexico Counseling Association) Conference on June 3 & 4 in ABQ. I urge you all to consider attending in some way. Find details at http://nmca-nm.org/pages/conferences.php. If anyone is inclined to help us man the booth, please contact me directly.

Our next membership meeting will be held in ABQ, June 11, 10:30 – 1:00pm at Deborah Good’s home, 2489 Elfego Rd NW, ABQ 87107. We will be honoring the work of this pioneer and art therapy treasure, so please mark this on your calendar and plan to attend. Our desire is to reengage all of you located in ABQ and to start the collaboration for next year’s conference. We will have a reception with food, presentation to Deborah, and information for everyone about all NMATA is doing on your behalf. One of NMATA’s initiatives is to work through the legislature to get parity for art therapists for third party (insurance) reimbursement, more details given at the membership meeting.

Your Board President (me, lol) and your LAC Committee Chair, Wendy Wasserman, will be attending this year’s AATA conference in Baltimore to represent NMATA and invite everyone there, to next year’s conference here. We will have a table full of brochures and we would also like to have some art for sale. We are asking for donations of small-sized, light-weight art that we can easily take to the conference. If any of you would care to donate please consider bringing your art to the June membership meeting. We would really love to have some art that speaks some of the color and flavor of NM and would greatly appreciate your tax-deductible donations! We will provide the non-profit donation forms.

I will finish this month’s letter with an appeal to all the art therapists in the state to please consider membership and involvement in your professional association, NMATA. I know many of you have served and participated in the past and we are enthusiastically appealing to you to rejoin and bring your experience and talent back to service. Our membership now runs for a complete year from the date of dues payment. We need all of us to be as strong and empowered as we can be. You are valued. And, of course, a great big thank you to all our current members!!!

I extend an invitation to all of you to contact me directly with any questions or concerns!